[K42-discussion] about hdwr question on our k42 discussion mailing list

[Michal Ostrowski]

On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 10:26 -0800, Paul H. Hargrove wrote:
> Michal Ostrowski wrote:
> 
> >The most recent hardware you can use is a G5 XServe.
> >
> >For PowerMac's, more recent ones won't work, so it would be best to
> >avoid those altogether.
> >
> >Unfortunately there really are no newer options.
> >  
> >
> I what sense to newer PowerMac's not work?  How new do you mean?
> 
> When the G5 PowerMacs were introduced, there were at least 2 hurdles to 
> use of K42, both of which I know to have been resolved for the PowerMacs 
> I am using (Dual 2.3Ghz G5, I'll post a model number when I am next in 
> my office).  The issues I know of are:
> 
> 1) The "stealth" serial port from GeeThree was not initially available 
> for the G5 PowerMacs, due to a change by Apple in the modem connector on 
> the mother board.  That is no longer an issue, since GeeThree sells a 
> stealth port for the G5 now (Yes, I use it with k42/thinwire and it works).
> 
> 2) The firmware in some PowerMacs lacks an interrupt entry for some 
> hardware, causing a boot-time crash in the Linux-029 code used in K42.  
> The patch for that has been floating around for a while, and is also 
> attached to this message.


The GeeThree adapter apparently does not work with newer G5 PowerMacs,
since the modem connector was redesigned again.

Also, newer PowerMacs have different power-management units (i.e. fans)
and thus depend on a different fan-control mechanism than K42 currently
supports.


-- 
Michal Ostrowski <mostrows at watson.ibm.com>